Sunday, June 2

Ai Weiwei's 100 million porcelain replicas of sunflower seeds

Even though I've not been there I've seen so many pictures that I have in my imagination the sound of my feet walking on these sea of seeds, the feeling of having them on my hands, the amazement of watching the space...

It is only my imagination but it is already a lot especially in an era where seeds are in the center of a turmoil.

"explained the sunflower was an integral part of Chinese Communist propaganda during the Cultural Revolution, where Mao Zedong was the sun and the people, as sunflowers, turned towards him. What the artist, who is also a political dissident, wanted was to bring another context to the popular Chinese street snack, as “a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness during a time of extreme poverty, repression and uncertainty.”

The article by Poe also explains:

"The immensity and scale is unfathomable unless you’re there in person. Titled “Sunflower Seeds”, the latest work from famed Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei, it features more than 100 million replicas of, as the title described, sunflower seeds made from porcelain. As part of the Unilever Series at London’s Tate Modern, the exhibition carpets, at a depth of 4-inch, the largest space of museum, the Turbine Hall. The exhibit took around 1,600 skilled artisans from the city of Jingdezhen, an area known for its fine porcelain production in China, a total of 2 years to produced. Weigh around 150-ton in total, each seed was molded, fired at the kiln, hand-painted, re-fired, and repeat, a process involved 20 to 30 steps." (emphasis added)